Canada Issues Blood Recall for West Nile

Published 2:42 pm, Monday, April 25, 2016

Blood products possibly carrying the West Nile virus are being recalled from hospitals in all Canadian provinces and territories except Quebec.

"We have taken this initiative in response to the growing number of probable and confirmed cases of West Nile virus," Dr. Graham Sher, chief executive officer for Canadian Blood Services, said Friday.

Doctors suspect an Ontario woman who had West Nile virus when she died last month contracted the disease through a blood transfusion administered during cancer treatments.

There have been two confirmed human deaths in Canada this year from West Nile, a mosquito-borne virus that causes flu-like symptoms and, in a small percentage of cases, potentially fatal encephalitis.

Sher said the increase in West Nile cases led to the recall of blood products starting Thursday. The frozen products were made from blood collected in Ontario from June to October, he said.

Despite the recall, the agency expects no shortage of the products.

Canadian Blood Services is a national, not-for-profit charitable organization that manages the blood supply in all provinces and territories outside of Quebec. The agency said it expects a reliable test to determine the presence of West Nile in donated blood by the summer of 2003.